RV-6a slider hard to slide

Has anyone else had a slider that doesn?t slide open and closed easily? Looking for suggestions on ideas to try to make my canopy slide with less effort. My wife has a hard time opening and closing it. Must be some binding or something somewhere but don?t see it.

Could be the frame is a little wider than the track and was forced into place. Or the wheels arent straight. When open, it there any side play at the front?

Every couple of years I take apart the rollers and lube them with silicone grease. Seems to last about 50 hours. Waxing the rail in the rear helps too. With the canopy removed to lube the wheels is a good time to polish the plexi on the underside too. Way easier than doing it upside down.

I recently fixed a neighbor's slider that was very difficult to open. They purchased the airplane and did not build it. The nylon block at the aft end of the canopy was too tall and rubbed on the fuselage skin beneath the track that is screwed to the fuselage. Removed the nylon block and put the bottom side of the nylon block to the bench mounted belt sander. Removing 1/16" was just enough to allow the canopy to slide easy.

On my almost 22-year old RV-6 that has 3,400 on the hobbs meter with slider, I take a paper towel, spray a little WD-40 on it, then wipe out the inside of the roller tracks. I also use the same paper towel to wipe the rear slider T rail / track that is mounted to the fuselage. Typically this makes my slider very easy to open and will sometimes slide aft with just the force of gravity on my tail wheel aircraft.

Mine is difficult to slide also. It is from the frame being too wide for the tracks by an inch or so and being forced into the wheel trucks. I lubricate with silicone spray on occasion and it helps. If there is a way to squeeze the canopy frame to fit better I?m all ears. I?d hate to crack the plexi trying it.

Planecrazy232 said:

Mine is difficult to slide also. It is from the frame being too wide for the tracks by an inch or so and being forced into the wheel trucks. I lubricate with silicone spray on occasion and it helps. If there is a way to squeeze the canopy frame to fit better I?m all ears. I?d hate to crack the plexi trying it.

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I would not try to bend it. It takes a lot of deformation for the frame to yield. I'm very certain the canopy would crack or break entirely by time you bend it that much.